


Electrifying

by avearia



Series: Phic Phight 2019 [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Angst, Electric Core AU, Electrocution, Gen, Injury, Lightning - Freeform, Near Death Experiences, Pain, Phic Phight 2019, Prompt Fic, ibelieveinahappilyeverafter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23357737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avearia/pseuds/avearia
Summary: Electric Core Danny AU - From Phic Phight 2019. Prompt: Instead of ice powers the accident with the Fenton Portal left Danny with electric based powers, his ghost sense a sharp jolt of a jump scare and his worries now revolving around trying to survive the increase in static shock. Life goes on, however, and he learns just how tiring being a half-ghost is."Who knew dying could make someone feel so alive?"
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson
Series: Phic Phight 2019 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679998
Comments: 7
Kudos: 132





	Electrifying

**Author's Note:**

> First of my prompt fills from the Phic Phight from 2019. Since we're coming up on the 2020 event, I figured archiving the old prompts here would be ideal before the flurry starts. 
> 
> This fic was based on a prompt by ibelieveinahappilyeverafter:  
> Electric Core Danny AU - Show Rewrite - Instead of ice powers the accident with the Fenton Portal left Danny with electric based powers, his ghost sense a sharp jolt of a jump scare and his worries now revolving around trying to survive the increase in static shock. Life goes on, however, and he learns just how tiring being a half-ghost is.
> 
> It ended up being more of a prequel to the series than a retelling of it, but I had fun with the AU regardless!

**Electrifying  
**—

His parents built a portal to another world in their basement.

It was their life's work, a monstrosity of metal and tubes and wires that dominated the South wall, boring 12 feet deep into the foundation like a tunnel waiting to be explored.

It didn't work.

Danny knew it didn't work, because he'd been there on the day his parents had cut the ribbon, so to speak. They'd waxed poetic for an hour, detailing all the theories that fascinated Danny, and the science and otherworldly mechanics that went soundly over his head, before eagerly taking hold of the sparkplugs and plugging them in.

The spittle of sparks that the portal released was underwhelming, to say the least. The Fenton Ghost Portal was a dud.

But… still…

Danny's fingers brushed against the doorway, skin tingling. The basement was dead dead silent, or so he'd thought, but the more he strained to look, to see to the other side of the tunnel, to listen—he swore he could hear a low hum vibrating the ground beneath his feet.

A dud… Were his parents so sure? After all, ghosts were invisible, right?

What if they _hadn't_ failed after all? What if the portal really was working, invisible at the back of that long, empty tunnel, waiting to be explored, and they just…

Couldn't… _see_ it?...

Danny took a step into the frame, cautious but curious what might lay on the other side.

A jolt of electricity seemed to branch up his spine, and Danny startled and leapt back, suddenly too afraid to go in.

This place felt—magical, almost, like a crossroads, and he didn't dare venture in.

Quickly, Danny backed away, then turned back and raced up the stairs, feet pounding the wood beneath his sneakers.

Deep down, he knew if he dared go exploring, it would change his life forever. And what was wrong with an ordinary life? What was wrong with going to school, day after day, hanging with friends or watching movies and living life in secure, empty bliss? Would he still be able to hang on to that, if he ventured down the path of his curiosity?

…He wasn't ready to know.

* * *

The monotony of his life caught up with him quick, though, and soon he was coasting through the days at Casper High unable to focus on school work or tired pleasantries without the Ghost Portal hovering at the back of his mind.

He told his friends, shared with Sam and Tuck why he'd been so distant these past few days, and instantly they got excited, too.

"You have an _interdimensional portal_ in your _basement?_ " Tucker pressed.

"That leads to the _realm of the dead?_ " Sam asked, mystified.

They shared a glance, brimming with excitement, and Danny couldn't help feel vindicated in his curiosity. By the time they turned back to him, eyes set and eager, he was ready to face the unknown.

"You _have_ to show us."

* * *

Tucker marveled at the tech.

Sam riddled him with questions about ghosts.

Both urged him to step inside. Danny didn't even need the push by that point, already zipping up the white and black hazmat that his parents stored nearby.

The jolt rang through his body when he stepped in to the archway again, buzzing with excitement. Taking a deep breath, his he followed the long hallway to the back, hand trailing along the wall for guidance.

His fingers brushed against a nob.

Something clicked.

And lightning— _exploded._

* * *

When Sam asked him later—what it felt like to be in that thunderstorm, what it felt like to _die—_ Danny told her it felt "Shocking!" and got a punch to the arm for the pun.

In truth, the Portal explosion was the worst pain he'd ever experienced.

The volts surged through his body, shattering their way through bones and veins and muscle. It felt like his body was on fire. Those few seconds seemed to stretch forever, and he felt like he was trapped in a single, sustained note of neverending agony.

He also felt—awake, in a way he hadn't before. He could feel the energy coursing through him, cackling in his veins, dancing through his skull, and when he gasped, white-hot air filling his lungs, it felt raw, and _new,_ as though it was the first breath he'd ever taken in his _life_.

Between the agony of death and the shuddering reality of rebirth, Danny could no more explain the experience than Sam could, just by watching.

And then it was gone. A flash of light, a pair of parting rings, and he was human again, dropped to the floor, and then crumpled to his knees, human and breathing and heart beating once more. He felt so _normal_ — so human. For all the agony and all of the pain, his body came out unscathed.

He almost wondered, right then, if maybe he'd imagined it. If maybe he'd never gone into the portal at all, because something like that… couldn't have happened, could it? In a flash, everything had gone back to normal, with only the smallest bits of evidence that it had happened at all:

His friend's horrified expressions…

The portal, swirling green behind him…

…And the sudden hollowness ringing in his heart.

* * *

The next two months were an exercise in frustration.

Danny alternated between periods of calm and rest, and the growing frequency of electric restlessness. It was becoming harder and harder to ignore the ghost signs, harder to ignore his powers.

Static shocks became frequent. His hair stood on end no matter how often he grounded himself on doorknobs and metal fixtures.

His friends avoided his touch like the plague; a lucky break for his bullying problem, since Dash didn't want to risk getting one of the infamously powerful shocks just to punch Danny a few times.

Paper stuck to him like cat fur. If he had a cat, the fur would probably stick to him like glue. His bedsheets cackled every morning when he peeled them away—getting dressed was almost not worth the effort.

Other items, he seemed to repel with prejudice. His cell phone, he dropped too many times to count. Pens. His lunch box. 34 beakers in science class. He'd caused enough damage that they actually marked on his permanent record that he was no longer allowed to handle fragile school equipment.

The first power outage he caused, Danny couldn't ignore things anymore. Trying to take a shower while feeling so charged up hadn't been his best plan to begin with, and the moment his hand touched the water a crackle of electricity shot up the water, across the metal, jumped around behind the plaster, and spread until it shorted out the entire block. His denial made a last, valiant attempt to shove the thoughts away, insisting that it had been a mere _coincidence_ , but when his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see himself in the mirror, his skeleton seeming to glow from the inside out before fading entirely, the jittery charge ebbing away with it.

He had powers, now.

Oh, the oddity had its perks—Tucker waxed poetic about how he hadn't had to charge his laptop in _days_ , and sometimes, Danny felt like he could sort of ~tune into~ the radio, songs playing in his head whenever the tingling feeling resurfaced. But on the whole, the costs seemed to outweigh the benefits.

When things finally came to a head, not one of the trio was surprised.

Danny startled awake one particularly bad night, emerging from a deep sleep into total alertness, jittering with energy.

He shoved the covers off himself with the thrust of his palm, and was on his feet before he knew it, the balls of his feet barely touching the floor. And Danny shut his eyes and reached inward, tapping into his core, trying to feel for where all this energy was coming from, trying to grab ahold.

A white ring of energy formed around his body, then split in two, and suddenly he was weightless.

A deep breath - a raw, shuddering breath - and Danny knew what must've happened.

He glanced at the mirror, and sure enough, there was the ghost, standing where his reflection should be, glowing softly in the darkness, white hair afloat, yellow-green eyes blinking back at him.

Danny didn't even need to touch his phone; the mere passing thought of calling his friends had the device dialing Tucker in an instant.

"Hello?" his sleepy friend said from the other end of the line.

"I think I'm dead again," Danny said in a whisper.

A long pause.

"…Meet me in Gaiman Park in 15 minutes," said Tucker, already on the move.

* * *

"Flying, intangibility, electric shocks—"

"Don't forget the glowing."

"Well, that goes without saying."

Danny juggled a few golfball sized rocks Tucker handed him, tossing them into the air with barely a touch. Tucker went on.

"Invisibility, Electronic manipulation, Telekinesis—"

"I think this is more of a… magnetic thing?" Danny pitched, still juggling. Each time the rocks approached his palms it felt like a mounting, repelling force, like trying to push two matching ends of a magnet together.

"A magnetic thing that you are performing with your mind. Ergo. Telekinesis."

"…Fair." Danny's hand jerked, throwing the rock too high, and it escaped from his magnetic hold and dropped to the earth, hitting his head on the way down. "Ow!"

"—Maybe you're not dead if you can feel pain?"

"Maybe. That… should've hurt _more,_ though, right? I mean—it's a _rock._ " He rubbed the spot on his head, the lump already fading. Only a tingling sensation lingered behind. "Geez, this is so weird."

"Sorry I'm late!" Sam hauled herself to the top of the brick wall that bisected the park, keeping the two teens invisible from the road. She vaulted over the top, her combat boots dropping to the dirt. "Had to shake my parents. So, what's—whoa."

She stopped in her tracks, eyes going wide as she took in Danny's new appearance. Danny shifted, uncomfortably, under her gaze.

"This is _crazy,_ " she murmured, awed.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"No, crazy _awesome_." She pressed, moving forward. "You look like you belong on the cover of a Humpty Dumpty album."

"—No offense but that's still not reassuring."

"We think maybe he's a ghost," Tucker filled her in, flashing his PDA of all the powers Danny had been displaying so far. It was a fairly long list. "Or some kind of mutant? Like in the comics. Maybe the portal was radioactive."

" _Again,_ " Danny hissed. "Not. Reassuring."

She reached out. "Can you change back? _Ow-_ " she hissed upon touching his hazmat, getting the customary shock. Sam shook her hand as if it had gone numb. "I mean. You did it before."

"Yeah, but I don't know _how._ " Danny circled his hands around the center of his chest. "I felt like, energy here, and when I tried to tap into it, I changed."

"Can you tap into it now?" Tucker asked.

Danny's brow furrowed. "I mean—I feel _something—_ " He focused, cradling his hands dome-like over his core. He closed his eyes, reaching inward.

A spark. The energy was there, thrumming through him, pivoting around a tight circle that seemed to twist at the center of his soul. He tapped into it, drawing the energy, teasing it out into his fingers—

Someone gasped. Danny's eyes fluttered open, hopeful that it had worked, but no. His hands were still gloved in white, the inverted hazmat of his dead form. And cradled in his palms, dancing through the gaps of his fingers…

"That's _lightning,_ " Sam breathed, her hair standing on end. Danny could feel it too, the prickle of energy that was now bleeding into the air.

He glanced at Tucker who was squinting. "I'm no expert, but that doesn't seem safe."

"Oh come on, Tucker, isn't that the coolest thing you've ever _seen?_ " Sam asked, grinning ear to ear.

The energy built in his palm, growing hotter. "Uh, yeah, I'm gonna have to side with Tucker on this one," Danny said, voice pinched, as the energy mounted in his hands. "It's getting stronger—? Guys? Some help?"

"You're the one generating it," Tucker eyed him warily. "Just turn it off!"

"Easy for you to say—" Danny's voice rose. His the space between his fingers was now almost completely whited out with electricity. "I'm sure you've done this a _hundred_ times…!"

"Okay, breathe. Focus." Sam said, voice steady.

The energy in his hands vibrated all the way up his arms. Danny took a deep breath, looking inward again, to that core. He imagined the thread he'd teased out earlier, picturing it in his mind like a string drawn from yarn, and in his mind, he snipped it off.

The lightning buckled. In his hands, it seized and rippled, balling and contracting in on itself, suddenly heavy, weighing him down. The air around them shifted and whistled, a wind drawing up from nowhere. Both his friends leapt back.

"Whoa—"

"You okay—?"

He needed to discharge. Too much energy built up in one place. Frantic, Danny braced himself in midair and shoved his palm outward, thrusting the electricity away.

_CRA-CRAK!_

Thunder cracked the air. Lightning flashed, and the energy leapt from his hand to the nearest, tallest object in the park, an old oak tree at the center of the hill.

Wood split under pressure. The tree burst into flames.

Tucker and Sam stumbled back from the blast, hands up to shield themselves. Danny still hovered, hand outstretched, pointing at the damage he'd caused, completely stunned. He glanced down at his friends, who stared up at him in awe.

The energy inside him dropped, suddenly, and his body did too, after a flash of light changed him from ghost to human. He hit the dirt, slipping to one knee, suddenly exhausted.

Tucker and Sam scrambled over to him, quick to be at his side but slow to reach out and comfort him. When Sam's hand brushed his bare skin, however, he didn't shock her. He didn't have enough energy left.

"Okay. _That,_ " Danny agreed, between breathless pants of air, "Was _crazy_."

"But you're back now," Sam said, trying to sound hopeful. "You're okay—"

"Oh my god Danny, look at that crater," Tucker's voice drew him out of his reverie. They all glanced where the tree was standing, crooked, flaming. There was indeed a crater in the base of the tree, the size of the wheel of a car, or bigger.

Tucker turned on his heel to look down at his friend. "You have superpowers," he said awestruck. "You got zapped with a ghost portal and now you have electrical ghost powers. Danny—you're superhuman."

Behind him, the wood of the tree buckled, cracked, gave way. The burning tree groaned and felled, crashing hard in the field, the fire quickly catching on the grass.

"Sure would be nice to have ice powers right about now," Danny murmured. "Maybe we should call the fire department?" He suggested.

Sirens whirling in the distance, approaching fast, suggested that wasn't necessary. Sam spun to face them.

"We keep this a secret," she said, firm. "Until we know more."

A police car peeled around the corner, its bright blue and red lights cutting over the top of the park's brick wall.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Danny said, wishing he could vanish.

A spark of energy thrummed down his spine, and in an instant, he disappeared.


End file.
